Saturday, 5 December 2015

3rd December 2015 Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary

We checked the two small forest pools at dawn but again there was no sign of any Duck. A few Hill Mynas were seen flycatching from some dead snags. We checked most of the larger lakes near the HQ with some Great Slaty Woodpeckers proving surprisingly musical in flight. Back near the HQ we enjoyed photographing a displaying pair of Green Peafowl until the superintendant asked us if we saw any Duck but on telling him that we hadn't he then told us that a friend of his had seen a White-winged Duck at another pool a month ago and offered to take us there. It seemed a long shot but we were soon driving down another track and then walking a leech-infested trail into the forest to a small dam where with much excitement the superintendant quickly picked out a White-winged Duck. Unfortunately the White-winged Duck was soon seen to be bearing a metal ring so likely to originate from a reintroduction project aimed at adding numbers to the wild population in the area thought to number around 20 a few years ago. The superintendant sensed our disappointment at seeing the ring, and as he was only wearing sandals and attracting the unwelcome attention of plenty of leeches, he made his excuses and left us to digiscope the Duck. The leeches were proving more than a nuisance and when it started to rain heavily that seemed a good enough reason to make our retreat. We then drove the entrance road as far as the Km9 clearing but spent much of the morning sheltering from rain although seeing a Radde's and Dusky Warbler, Asian Brown and Taiga Flycatcher and 8 Olive-backed Pipits in the clearing I was soon reminding myself this would be quite a day on Unst! We then took a drive to the entrance barrier running over an innocuous piece of wood that somehow got caught under the car for a few meters causing the speedo and milometer to stop working, the satnav to display constant error messages and two orange warning lights to remain lit for the rest of our trip! We walked various stretches of the road for the rest of the day ending up at the tower overlooking the grassland at dusk where we saw an impressively large flock of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters at their pre-roost gathering numbering c.1,000 birds. After dark we eat more of our provisions in the car.